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So I was living in San Diego, working at Psyonix, and got an email from a recruiter basically saying “I’ve got jobs in Europe if you’re interested”.

Normally I tell recruiters that I’m fine, and thank them, but Europe made me stop and think. I’ve been trying to get to Europe at least for a vacation for years now, and it occurred to me that it could be cool to live and work there for a while. So I found out that one of the companies was Crytek, and I did a test for them, then they brought me out for an interview, then they made an offer, and now here I am!

I’m currently living in Frankfurt, Germany, working at Crytek as a lighting artist.

I plan on doing a ton of photography, and am currently making a list of places I want to visit. Mainly old architecture, castles, and trying food from different countries.

So my next entries here will probably be more in the form of a travelogue. And food!

So I decided to start riding my bike to work here in San Diego a couple months ago. I live in an area called City Heights, and work downtown near Seaport Village.

It’s about 7 miles one way, 14 miles round trip on the route I usually take. The distance doesn’t bother me, but the hills are obnoxious. There’s a 300 foot elevation change between work and home, and it’s all uphill at night when I ride home.

So I got this electric bike a couple weeks ago, and it’s been awesome. It’s a Currie IZIP E3 Zuma. Battery is supposedly good for about 25 miles before it needs a recharge, but on my rides, I’ve never dropped to the halfway mark yet, so it handles my 14 mile trip easy. Only takes about 2 hours to recharge…I bring the battery pack in at night and charge it.

I’m completely paranoid about it being stolen, but fortunately I can bring it in the building at work.

Wow, it’s been great how well I’ve been keeping up with this blog, isn’t it?

*sigh*

Lots has changed over the past few months. I got a new job at Psyonix, moved to San Diego, and went to Hawaii for a couple weeks during Christmas. I am working with the Unreal engine and doing lighting and special effects for upcoming titles. It’s the first time in 18 years that I’ve worked with anything other than a proprietary game engine. Unreal is pretty cool…I’m able to do fast turnarounds on lighting, and Cascade is a pretty nice particle system.

Looking forward to seeing what I can do as I become more familiar with the tools!

You know how sometimes you hear a piece of music, and it makes you crazy because you know you heard it somewhere else recently and can’t place it?

That happened tonight when I went to see my kid perform at choir at his middle school. There was a piece sung by the Select Choir that I really liked, and I kept thinking “where have I heard this?” The program said the song was called Suo Gân, and after looking it up online, it turns out it’s a piece that was featured in Spielberg’s film Empire of the Sun, which I had watched not too long ago.

So I’m on my 2 week vacation after we wrapped up Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time.

I’m currently sitting in a hotel room in Canal Winchester, Ohio. I’m a little more than half-way through my trip, which has thus far included hay rides, apple orchards, pumpkin patches, haunted houses, hiking, and lots of Fall color photography.

I’m basically reliving my childhood (I grew up in Worthington, Ohio) and have been meaning for several years now to come back during what is probably my favorite season. I’ve lived out West most of my adult life, and sometimes miss the Fall colors. (Yes, the leaves change color in the Fall everywhere, but it’s just not the same as those vibrant colors back East.)

After I get back to Nevada, I’ll sift through the hundreds of photos I’ve shot and put together a link with photos. For now, I’m still having fun!